Post by jaysmith on Sept 28, 2009 20:52:34 GMT -5
HG World is the story of several people who have taken refuge from a global zombie uprising in and around a House & Garden World warehouse somewhere in northwestern Pennsylvania.
The Setting.
Wishwell, Pennsylvania is a small town in the Algonquin Valley – a fictional location identified as between Erie, State College and Johnstown, insulated by the Appalachian Mountains and accessible only by three or four roads and the Erie Highway leading to the nearest Interstate.
Wishwell was a town in transition, fighting the inevitable arrival of the 21st century and struggling with high unemployment, poor schools and an aging population. HG World was part of a revitalization project spearheaded by the county commission to provide jobs for Wishwell and the surrounding area and build new schools, upgrade public services and attractive upscale homes to bring in revenue.
The Algonquin Valley is unique in that its founders were railroad engineers who, upon surveying the valley for the Reading Railroad had the foresight to propose building a reservoir in the area by damming the Forsythe River and creating a hydroelectric planet to power the region. With the help of Philadelphia developers, the engineers set about to build a new community for themselves and their families. While the broader plan to during Wishwell into a whistlestop between Scranton an Erie failed, the power plant became part of a County Co-Op providing cheap energy to the community and a revenue stream through outsourcing access to it and reservoir water. In 1922, the Vance Farm opened in the valley becoming the largest of five local farms and dairy making the valley almost entirely self-sufficient.
By the end of the century, however, economic challenges and changing times forced all but the Vance Farm to close. By 2008, the Vance Farm had folded as well, taking several local businesses with it. Unemployment rose to over 12.5%, not including those residents who were retired, disabled or simply not able to work. The town that once boasted 3200 residents in the 1970s entered the 21st century with less than 800.
The HGW Corporation brought with it several of its umbrella subsidiaries, including its unique “Pre-fab mini mall” of shops it installed in downtown Wishwell, including a sandwich shop, convenience store, video rentals and a card/gift outlet. Soon after, corporate partners joined HGW in the construction of a truck stop north of the valley and a McQuaker fast food location. The future was looking bright for Wishwell and the valley.
Then the dead began to rise.
The story begins a year into the uprising where all federal, state and local structures have dissolved and communication with the outside is limited to a few scattered survivalist camps around the world. The industrialized world has been lost, though it is unknown how the living dead have fared now that a year has passed and there are few fresh bodies to fill their dwindling ranks.
Many residents of Wishwell, PA took shelter at HG World when the roads out of town were blocked. Ferocious monsters called Eaters started appearing around town, their source traced to the coffee shop near the bus station where a sick transient got into a fight with three locals. (Some contradict this story, saying it began in the town jail or at the hospital…though each account contains truth in that the sickness spread through town quickly and 800 people dropped to around 200 within a few days, most due to injuries and exposure within the first few hours of the outbreak.
The generally accepted version of events is that an unnamed couple, lost on a detour from I-80, stopped in Wishwell at the Stop-n-Go. The husband had been bitten and expired while his wife was asking directions from the clerk. Witnesses Hicks and Ronni report that the husband quickly turned and attacked the wife, who quickly died and also turned. After breaking out of the car, the zombies attacked Ronni and Hicks. The battle left the store clerk, Carl, infected, though Hicks learned that head shots destroy the zombies. While Hicks managed to run down the zombified Carl, its brain was not destroyed and the zombie wandered up the road to Weezie’s Diner where it infected others before being destroyed.
The fight at Weezie’s Diner resulted in the sick elderly man going to jail, Louise (the owner) going to the ER, a trucker who refused treatment leaving town, and Ronny Dale heading to work at the HG World. By dinner that night, cases were being reported in those locations and down the road in Fairthee as well as across the country.
Within 24 hours, the local government held and lost four shelters to packs of Eaters and when contaminated loved ones began turning inside shelters. By the time the National Guard appeared, they could barely navigate Main Street for the fires, wreckage and ravenous Eaters. Their group of 20 managed to negotiate the survivors of the town to the local HG World. Originally, they tried to make it west to WalMart, but the place burned to the ground with several hundred county refugees inside.
That Awful Day
The next 24 hours constitute a time none of the residents will speak of in detail other than to call it That Awful Day. After seeing how the injured turned and destroyed refugee camps, the 800 people attempting to gain protection had to battle Guardsmen and others when they or their loved ones were denied entry due to possible infection.
Settling In
The surviving National Guard soldiers have taken shelter there, as did about fifty travelers from the Interstate. The town Fire Chief, two medical doctors, three nurses and a paramedic live in the structure. They brought with them all the medical supplies they could carry when the outbreak reached the Hospital. As far as anyone knows, the entire Wishwell police force (6 full time and 4 part time officers) are gone and they have not heard or seen County, State or Federal officials in six months. The last time anyone “with a badge” made contact, it was a State Militia claiming they were going to try and leave their shelter at the top of Graves Peak sixty miles north. Their radio message did not indicate a destination or direction.
Eventually, the survivors settled in, organized and built a strong fortification. The Guardsmen formed a local government with Store Management, surviving officials (The Mayor, the Fire Chief, one of the Doctors who once sat on Town Council) and everyone agreed to pull their weight to keep the survivors safe.
The Setting.
Wishwell, Pennsylvania is a small town in the Algonquin Valley – a fictional location identified as between Erie, State College and Johnstown, insulated by the Appalachian Mountains and accessible only by three or four roads and the Erie Highway leading to the nearest Interstate.
Wishwell was a town in transition, fighting the inevitable arrival of the 21st century and struggling with high unemployment, poor schools and an aging population. HG World was part of a revitalization project spearheaded by the county commission to provide jobs for Wishwell and the surrounding area and build new schools, upgrade public services and attractive upscale homes to bring in revenue.
The Algonquin Valley is unique in that its founders were railroad engineers who, upon surveying the valley for the Reading Railroad had the foresight to propose building a reservoir in the area by damming the Forsythe River and creating a hydroelectric planet to power the region. With the help of Philadelphia developers, the engineers set about to build a new community for themselves and their families. While the broader plan to during Wishwell into a whistlestop between Scranton an Erie failed, the power plant became part of a County Co-Op providing cheap energy to the community and a revenue stream through outsourcing access to it and reservoir water. In 1922, the Vance Farm opened in the valley becoming the largest of five local farms and dairy making the valley almost entirely self-sufficient.
By the end of the century, however, economic challenges and changing times forced all but the Vance Farm to close. By 2008, the Vance Farm had folded as well, taking several local businesses with it. Unemployment rose to over 12.5%, not including those residents who were retired, disabled or simply not able to work. The town that once boasted 3200 residents in the 1970s entered the 21st century with less than 800.
The HGW Corporation brought with it several of its umbrella subsidiaries, including its unique “Pre-fab mini mall” of shops it installed in downtown Wishwell, including a sandwich shop, convenience store, video rentals and a card/gift outlet. Soon after, corporate partners joined HGW in the construction of a truck stop north of the valley and a McQuaker fast food location. The future was looking bright for Wishwell and the valley.
Then the dead began to rise.
The story begins a year into the uprising where all federal, state and local structures have dissolved and communication with the outside is limited to a few scattered survivalist camps around the world. The industrialized world has been lost, though it is unknown how the living dead have fared now that a year has passed and there are few fresh bodies to fill their dwindling ranks.
Many residents of Wishwell, PA took shelter at HG World when the roads out of town were blocked. Ferocious monsters called Eaters started appearing around town, their source traced to the coffee shop near the bus station where a sick transient got into a fight with three locals. (Some contradict this story, saying it began in the town jail or at the hospital…though each account contains truth in that the sickness spread through town quickly and 800 people dropped to around 200 within a few days, most due to injuries and exposure within the first few hours of the outbreak.
The generally accepted version of events is that an unnamed couple, lost on a detour from I-80, stopped in Wishwell at the Stop-n-Go. The husband had been bitten and expired while his wife was asking directions from the clerk. Witnesses Hicks and Ronni report that the husband quickly turned and attacked the wife, who quickly died and also turned. After breaking out of the car, the zombies attacked Ronni and Hicks. The battle left the store clerk, Carl, infected, though Hicks learned that head shots destroy the zombies. While Hicks managed to run down the zombified Carl, its brain was not destroyed and the zombie wandered up the road to Weezie’s Diner where it infected others before being destroyed.
The fight at Weezie’s Diner resulted in the sick elderly man going to jail, Louise (the owner) going to the ER, a trucker who refused treatment leaving town, and Ronny Dale heading to work at the HG World. By dinner that night, cases were being reported in those locations and down the road in Fairthee as well as across the country.
Within 24 hours, the local government held and lost four shelters to packs of Eaters and when contaminated loved ones began turning inside shelters. By the time the National Guard appeared, they could barely navigate Main Street for the fires, wreckage and ravenous Eaters. Their group of 20 managed to negotiate the survivors of the town to the local HG World. Originally, they tried to make it west to WalMart, but the place burned to the ground with several hundred county refugees inside.
That Awful Day
The next 24 hours constitute a time none of the residents will speak of in detail other than to call it That Awful Day. After seeing how the injured turned and destroyed refugee camps, the 800 people attempting to gain protection had to battle Guardsmen and others when they or their loved ones were denied entry due to possible infection.
Settling In
The surviving National Guard soldiers have taken shelter there, as did about fifty travelers from the Interstate. The town Fire Chief, two medical doctors, three nurses and a paramedic live in the structure. They brought with them all the medical supplies they could carry when the outbreak reached the Hospital. As far as anyone knows, the entire Wishwell police force (6 full time and 4 part time officers) are gone and they have not heard or seen County, State or Federal officials in six months. The last time anyone “with a badge” made contact, it was a State Militia claiming they were going to try and leave their shelter at the top of Graves Peak sixty miles north. Their radio message did not indicate a destination or direction.
Eventually, the survivors settled in, organized and built a strong fortification. The Guardsmen formed a local government with Store Management, surviving officials (The Mayor, the Fire Chief, one of the Doctors who once sat on Town Council) and everyone agreed to pull their weight to keep the survivors safe.